Topic：Employment and Health Among Older People: Self-Employment vs. Wage Employment
Speaker：Taehyun Ahn，Sogang University (South Korea)
Time：15:00–16:15
Date: April 19, 2019
Venue: 106B，Zhonghui Building

Introduction to speaker：
Taehyun Ahn is an Associate Professor at the School of Economics, and the Deputy Director of Graduate School of Economics, Sogang University (South Korea). He is also the Deputy Secretary of Korean Economic Association. Taehyun Ahn earned his Ph.D. in Economics from The Ohio State University, the U.S. in 2008, and worked as an Associate Research Fellow at Korea Labor Institute, and later as Assistant Professor at Kyung Hee University before joining Sogang University in 2011. He was also a Visiting Scholar at Simon Fraser University from August 2017 to July 2018. Taehyun Ahn‘s main research interests lie in Labor Economics and Empirical Microeconomics. Throughout the career, he served on the Editorial Boards of several Korean journals and he has widely published both locally (Korean Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Employment and Skill Development, Journal of Women and Economics, etc.) and internationally (Labor Economics, Health Economics, Journal of Public Economics, etc.).
 
Abstract:
With increased life expectancy and population aging, social security systems and employment policies for the elderly have become important for many countries. Health is a main consideration in designing and reforming policies for aged populations. In this study, I examine the impacts of employment at older ages on individuals’ health using data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSa). In assessing the health consequences of employment, I distinguish between self-employment, which is predominant among the elderly working population, and wage employment. The results show that the effects on health differ by employment type; self-employment has a negative impact on general health and mental health whereas wage work has a positive impact. However, in contrast to wage work, self-employment improves cognitive functioning.